Teletherapy Resources

• American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA): Telehealth Resources: Looking for information on whether you can use telehealth in your state and how to incorporate it into practice? AOTA has gathered the resources below to help members navigate this emerging area.
• American Physical Therapy Association (APTA): Telehealth: Telehealth, the use of electronic communication to remotely provide health care information and services, is gaining more and more attention as providers, patients, and payers all seek more effective and cost-efficient ways to deliver care. Physical therapy is no exception, and while those services have developed mostly in rural areas to accommodate the long distances between patients and providers, telehealth in physical therapy is being considered in other geographic and clinical settings.
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA): Telepractice: Telepractice is the application of telecommunications technology to the delivery of speech language pathology and audiology professional services at a distance by linking clinician to client or clinician to clinician for assessment, intervention, and/or consultation. Supervision, mentoring, pre-service, and continuing education are other activities that may be conducted through the use of technology. However, these activities are not included in ASHA's definition of telepractice and are best referred to as telesupervision/distance supervision and distance education. See ASHA’s Practice Portal page on Clinical Education and Supervision for a detailed discussion of telesupervision.
• Federal Office of Rural Health Policy: Telehealth Programs: (HRSA) The Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) promotes the use of telehealth technologies for health care delivery, education, and health information services. Telehealth is especially critical in rural and other remote areas that lack sufficient health care services, including specialty care.
• National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers: These twelve Telehealth Resource Centers (TRCs) support all states and territories. TRCs have been established to provide assistance, education, and information to organizations and individuals who are actively providing or interested in providing health care at a distance. Their charter from the Office for Advancement of Telehealth is to assist in expanding the availability of health care to rural and underserved populations and their federally funding means the assistance they provide is generally free of charge.
• Virtual Toolkit: Easing Faculty Transition to Online Instruction: (CEEDAR Center) CEEDAR Center has collected information on online collaboration platforms, online meeting engagement, online courses and modules for teacher candidates and more.
• Use of Technology with Evidence Based Early Intervention: The Ohio Association of County Boards of DD, a grantee of the Ohio DD Council, has produced in partnership with families and practitioners in Ohio, a video series about the use of technology with evidence based early intervention. This eight-video series illustrates how video, video conferencing, and related technologies can improve access to, and the quality of, supports for families as well as better enable teams to practice evidence-based early intervention services.
• A Practical Guide to the Use of Tele-Intervention in Providing Early Intervention Services to Infants and Toddlers Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (NCHAM)

  Over the past 8-9 years, NCHAM has been supporting the knowledge base and research to determine the effectiveness of tele-intervention (TI). They believe TI is a useful tool in serving families of children who are Deaf and Hard-of-hearing and applies to the use in promoting communication development. This guide has applicability across early intervention and has great resources on technology, sample consent form etc. Three Tele-Intervention 101 Learning Courses for different audiences are included:

  Tele-Intervention 101: Families

  Tele-Intervention 101: Providers

  Tele-Intervention 101: Administrators

• RPMs: Module 6: Instruction: Voices from the Field: Pam Dawson: In this module, Pam Dawson talks about Tele-Intervention (TI), which is a virtual service delivery model. Pam Dawson, M.Ed is the Executive Director of hear ME now – a Maine non-profit that helps children and adults with hearing loss develop listening and speaking skills through the use of hearing technology. Pam discusses the benefits and challenges of TI and provides strategies for successful implementation.

  Early Childhood Recommended Practice Modules (RPMs) are free modules developed for early care and education, early intervention, and early childhood special education faculty and professional development providers. The modules support the implementation of the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Recommended Practices.

• Video Conferencing 101: This handout from Larry Edelman of University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus provides examples of how video conferencing might be used, general tips regarding technology, environment, and interactions with others, and a series of helpful links.